135 people have died in Texas prisons since June 1; Families demand answers

You might think - this doesn't concern me because these people are just criminals.

However, they are also human beings just like the rest of us, and a civilized society would investigate this.





"As Tona Naranjo raised a faint candle toward the Governor’s Mansion, she remembered the light of her life now extinguished.

Gathered in prayerful protest on the steps of the mansion on Friday night, she mourned with other families who have lost loved ones inside the criminal justice system.

Her son, Jon Anthony Southwards, died at 36 years old on June 28 inside the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Estelle Unit. He was found unresponsive in his cell and later pronounced dead. His cause of death is still unknown, pending autopsy results from a medical examiner.

Naranjo is seeking answers from TDCJ regarding the circumstances of her son’s sudden death.

“That little boy taught me what unconditional love was all about. He taught me what passion was. He taught me what it was like to be a sovereign servant,” she told a crowd of families and inmate advocates Friday. “A judge sentenced Jon Anthony to 20 years. The TDCJ Estelle Unit sentenced Jon Anthony to death.”

Southards is one of at least 202 people who have died while incarcerated inside Texas correctional facilities since June 1.

Nexstar analyzed each report of the 135 deaths inside TDCJ prisons. Custodial death reports from the Texas Attorney General’s Office show at least 51 people appear to have died suddenly in uncontrolled circumstances, based on data and descriptions provided in those reports.

Of those 51 deaths, 11 died of cardiac arrest or heart failure. In 38 cases, the cause of death is unknown or pending autopsy results."

a reply to: SkyAngel

Of those 51 deaths, 11 died of cardiac arrest or heart failure. In 38 cases, the cause of death is unknown or pending autopsy results."

First thing that comes to mind is 'were they vaxxed' and second would be do Texas prisons have the same problem with drugs being smuggled in as other prisons do? Fentanyl is a real killer.....

Texas also has the highest number of prisoners out of all the states at 1333.8 thousand, so I'm not sure if 202 deaths is an unusually high number. California is the second highest state for incarcerated prisoners at only 101.4 thousand.


Hopefully they will start doing thorough autopsies and get to the bottom of the high number of deaths.

Wow.

a reply to: SkyAngel

I can't muster up any sympathy for a lifelong scumbag like the guy in this story.

Wow. That was a super long sob story about the bad guy. I wonder how his victim/s are doing these days.

a reply to: SkyAngel

I used to work in a Texas prison. If he died from heat exhaustion in his cell, then it's his own fault. Not only can they acquire fans on commissary, but there is a drinking fountain in every cell. Sure, it's nothing nice or fancy, but it is sanitary. It's better than a garden hose, and most of us are no stranger to the quick garden hose thirst quench.

There also is a constant supply of electrolytes.

999 times out of 1,000 inmate deaths are not due to officer negligence. That was back in 2005. Things have only gotten much more strict on the officers and better for convicts since then.

Did he have a cell-mate? Did he buy a bad batch of dope? Did he get the covid shots? So many things could cause an unknown death. Why don't we just wait for the autopsy before we jump to conclusions either way.

Perhaps this was that 1 time out of 1,000 when the officer negligence was to blame. Perhaps it's just a real world where people die unexpectedly for various reasons.

We need a complete overhaul of the prison system, and all private companies need to be removed at the same time, like CoreCivic or GEOGroup.

The problem is, they lobby A LOT! They own our legislators on both sides and that money is worth more than the constitutional rights of these convicts.

Or so they must tell themselves.

We could learn from prison systems in some other civilized countries, particularly the Scandinavian, where they heavily focus on rehabilitation as opposed to just incarceration. But we can't do this, we imprison too many people to rehabilitate them all, our system only works for imprisonment, and now it doesn't even work for that because of prison overpopulation.

So that brings us back to -- we need a complete overhaul.

274 Dead in Alabama prisons last year. We're at 164 this year.